Paintball by ViNull, on Flickr
A recent story from the BBC claims that a 26-year old woman suffered a breast implant rupture after being hit with a paintball.
She wasn’t sure that any damage had been done until she visited her surgeon’s office the following Monday. The woman, who remains anonymous, is expected to fully recover.
Shots from a paintball gun can travel 190mph and are known to cause bruising, especially after being fired at close range. The possibility that one could rupture a breast implant is questionable.
One UK cosmetic surgeon responded to the story and commented to daily mail: “In my opinion, this type of accident is highly unlikely – if there was an incident with a breast implant patient, it would be unlikely to have been caused by a paintball gun.”
Whether the incident is true or a fabricated publicity stunt, an alert on UK paintball’s website tries to address the issue for future paintball players who have undergone a previous breast augmentation or reconstruction:
We respectfully ask that any ladies with surgical breast implants notify our team at the time of booking. You will be given special information on the dangers of paintballing with enhanced boobs and asked to sign a disclaimer. You will also be issued with extra padding to protect your implants while paintballing.